Voter Fraud In Bexar County?

BY JULIE CARR SMYTH And DIANE SOLOV

c.2004 Newhouse News Service

CLEVELAND -- Signs of a heavy surge of new urban voters in Ohio could add up to immense influence for Democratic-leaning central cities in this key swing state.

At last count, more than half of the new voters registered in Ohio -- 475,000 out of 830,000 -- hail from eight urban counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus), Hamilton (Cincinnati), Montgomery (Dayton), Summit (Akron), Lucas (Toledo), Lorain (Lorain/Elyria) and Stark (Canton/Massillon). They make up nearly 6 percent of the entire 7.8 million-plus statewide electorate, at a time when the latest polls show President Bush and Sen. John Kerry running neck and neck in the state.

New registrations are still being counted, and everyone cautions that votes -- not registrations -- will decide the election. But, 'There's no question that if the vote turns out as anticipated, there's enough potential fresh registrants that they can determine the outcome of Ohio,' said George Forbes, president of the NAACP's Cleveland chapter.

Bush won Ohio in 2000 with 50 percent of the vote. Vice President Al Gore got 46.4 percent and Ralph Nader 2.5 percent.

Republicans maintain that new registrations in growing Republican counties will blunt the impact of new urban voters. But among the urban counties thick with new voters, all but two swung to Gore in 2000. Hamilton and Stark went to Bush in that race, and Democrats in both counties say the vast majority of new registrations there have been in Democratic-leaning urban precincts of Cincinnati, Canton and Massillon.

"We're fully aware of the fact that people who don't vote are Democrats, and that lower-income people are Democrats," said Johnnie Maier, Democratic chairman in Stark County, which is widely considered a bellwether. "Those are the areas we tried to register."

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